Analyzing Business Research on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Clusters, Gaps, and Future Directions

This study comprehensively analyzed and summarized business-related research on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Research on the FCPA is essential because sanctions for violations have grown substantially, increasing risks for multinational enterprises (MNEs). Recent fines exceeded $1 billion, and business executives were personally fined and imprisoned (Stanford Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Clearinghouse, 2021). Unfortunately, theory-based and empirically-validated business research has not kept pace with this increased risk. Performance mapping and science mapping pinpointed the most prolific academic fields, the most cited articles, and clusters of authors, journals, and keywords. Analyses identified gaps in the literature. Prior research focused on public policy questions, like the impact of the FCPA on American companies (Shapiro, 2013), the propriety of attempting to regulate foreign business ethics, and international treaties. Moreover, significant clustering and fractionalization into legal academic silos have side-stepped business-related research topics. New and different research directions are proposed

Corporate corruption: a review and research agenda

Given its extremely negative impact, it is not surprising that there is extensive literature focused on understanding and reducing corruption. However, the existing academic work focuses largely on corruption in government. Yet, corporations play a key role in much of the corruption that occurs in society and are important contexts for corruption themselves; they are also very different from governments and, we argue, deserve focused study and the development of a coherent theory of corporate corruption. In this article, we define corporate corruption and argue that management researchers are uniquely positioned to contribute to the development of a theory of corporate corruption and the development of solutions to prevent it. We then examine the current state of research on this important topic and propose a framework for organizing research on corporate corruption into four perspectives: corporate corruption as rational action, corporate corruption as institutionalized practice, corporate corruption as cultural norm, and corporate corruption as moral failure. We go on to propose a research agenda for management scholars in some traditional areas of management research to take this important but under-researched topic forward, as well as highlight some of the methodological challenges that management researchers face in conducting research in corporate corruption

Risk management for second-hand clothing imports in least developed countries: Legislations and perception of public-sector corruption

The second-hand clothing imports are very popular in the least developed countries (LDCs). The social health risk (SHR) associated with second-hand clothing products and the lack of relevant legislations in LDCs, however, bring substantial challenges. This article is therefore developed to explore the sterilization legislation design for second-hand clothing supply chains in LDCs. To address LDCs' different import requirements of fumigation, both the extended exporter responsibility (EER) legislation scheme and the extended importer responsibility (EIR) legislation scheme are considered. We also examine whether the perception of public-sector corruption in LDCs may affect the performance of sterilization legislation schemes. We compare the performance of sterilization legislation schemes under different public-sector corruption cases, different sterilization legislation structures, as well as market competition. Interestingly, our analyses show that the EER and EIR legislation schemes can achieve the same performance under a per unit SHR duty, no matter whether there is public-sector corruption or not. However, these two legislation schemes perform differently under the lump-sum SHR duty. Besides, with the presence of the public-sector corruption perception, the prospect of financial benefits from bribing the regulatory agency can induce the firm to choose a higher optimal sterilization level when the bribe is sufficiently small. These implications complement the extant knowledge on risk management of second-hand clothing in LDCs, and provide an important guidance regarding the design of sterilization legislations on second-hand clothing imports

Conspicuous by Its Absence: Diagnostic Expert Testing under Uncertainty

We study the problem a diagnostic expert (e.g., a physician) faces when offering a diagnosis to a client (e.g., a patient) that may be based only on her own diagnostic ability or supplemented by a diagnostic test—conventional and artificial intelligence (AI) tools alike—revealing the client’s true condition. The expert’s diagnostic ability (or type) is her private information. The expert is impurely altruistic in that she cares about both the client’s utility and her own reputational payoff that depends on the peer perception about her diagnostic ability. The decision of whether to perform the test, which is costly for the client, provides the expert with an opportunity to influence that perception. We show a unique separating equilibrium exists in which the high-type expert does not resort to diagnostic testing and offers a diagnosis based only on her own diagnostic ability, whereas the low-type expert performs the test. Furthermore, we establish that the high-type expert may skip necessary diagnostic tests to separate her from the low-type expert. Interestingly, the effect of reputational payoff on under-testing is non-monotonic, and the desire to appear of high type leads to under-testing only when the reputational payoff is intermediate. Our results also suggest a more altruistic expert may be more likely to engage in under-testing. Furthermore, efforts to encourage testing by providing financial incentives or by raising malpractice-lawsuit concerns may, surprisingly, help fuel under-testing in the equilibrium. Our paper sheds new light on barriers to the adoption of AI tools aimed at enhancing physicians’ diagnostic decision making

Strategies to Reduce Corrupt Practices at the Firm Level in Nigeria

Corruption is harmful to businesses and impedes performance and growth. When business leaders fail to mitigate fraud and corruption, their business and the local economy suffer. Grounded in the principal-agent theory and the integrative social contract theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies business leaders in Nigeria use to reduce firm-level corrupt practices. The participants were six anticorruption officers at three firms who implemented successful strategies to reduce corrupt practices to enhance performance. Data collected came from semistructured interviews and company documents. Five themes emerged from the thematic analysis: bribery and corruption are part of the culture, leaders must create anticorruption policies that promote a climate of integrity, leaders must provide appropriate training, leaders must evaluate compliance with laws, and there are multiple benefits to fighting corruption. A key recommendation is for business leaders to embed a culture of integrity and compliance, establish a unified strategy to combat noncompliance, and communicate and collaborate across different operational levels. The implications for social change include the potential to promote the worth, dignity, and development of the employees and leaders, consequently increasing their self-worth, which supports a higher ability for exceeding goals—moreover, when organizations promote public trust, society\u27s confidence rises